But the real star is little Bindi, whose clothing range was swiftly supplemented by a talking Bindi doll, a fitness DVD, a TV show, and regular performances in the zoo's Crocoseum. Then there was her emergence as a political force, witheringly writing off both candidates in the 2008 presidential election for talking about "jobs, houses, developments, money, money and more money" instead of conservation.

Now 14, Bindi made a sensational return to the world stage a couple of weeks ago when she went on the record to voice her displeasure with the US state department, whose editing of an essay she wrote for Hillary Clinton's e-journal had displeased her very deeply indeed. And rightly so. Let me tell you something: Bindi Irwin doesn't craft 1,000 words of incredibly pedestrian analogy about the planet being an overcrowded party with not enough food, just for some tedious little Maxwell Perkins in the US state department to attempt to whittle it down to something slightly shorter.

But that was a fortnight ago. This week? Well, the trailer dropped for Bindi's new movie – Return to Nim's Island, in which our heroine plays a plucky 14-year-old defending her island home from poachers. Like I say, little Bindi's a comer. And the minute this column knows further details of her journey towards full spectrum dominance, so will you.